The present invention relates to a system for transporting textile packages on individual tube support members.
Transport systems are known in the textile machine art for independently transporting textile packages such as, for example, packages comprised of a body of yarn built on a tube, to and between locations on a textile machine or textile machines. One transport system of this type relies upon a plurality of tube support members, each having a cylindrical base component and a post co-axially mounted on the base component for receiving the yarn package tube inserted thereover. The tube support members each individually support a tube having no yarn, or a partial or full yarn package built thereon, for transport of the tube or yarn package independent of the tubes and other yarn packages to and between the yarn package handling locations of the textile machine arrangement. The cylindrical base components of the tube support members are of identical diameter, and one common approach to guiding, stopping, and organizing such tube support members in the transport system is to provide guide elements, stop elements, and the like positioned at the same vertical level as the cylindrical base component of the tube support members to thereby respectively guide, stop, or otherwise engage the tube support members.
The cylindrical base portion of the tube support members, in addition to providing a common dimensional reference for the layout of the guiding, stopping, and other handling components, provides protection for the yarn packages supported thereon from undesirable contact with other yarn packages or other objects This protective function is accomplished by dimensioning the cylindrical base component of &:he tube support member with a greater diameter than the maximum diameter of the yarn package supported thereon. Consequently, as the tube support member independently transports its associated yarn package and is thereby moved in the vicinity of other yarn packages supported on tube support members, as well as elements of the textile machine adjacent the travel path of the yarn package, the cylindrical base component of the tube support members is the first portion of the tube support member which is initially contacted by the other tube support members or other objects. In this manner, direct contact between the yarn package supported on the tube support member and, for example, other yarn packages or structures on the textile machine is avoided.
However, in certain textile operations, the type of textile package which is to be transported has a diameter significantly greater than other types of yarn packages. For example, a so-called cross-wound package typically has a diameter relatively much greater than a typical so-called bobbin. The cross-wound package typically has a frusto-conical shape with the bottom of the package being of a larger diameter than the top of the package. In German Patent Document DE-OS 34 16 387, a transport system is disclosed for transporting cross-wound packages. However, while several known transport systems are capable of transporting bobbin-type yarn packages independently of one another on tube support members and, further, several known transport systems are operable to transport cross-wound packages, the need still exists for a transport system which facilitates the transport of different types of yarn packages about a textile machine without significant changeover or re-tooling requirements to ready the transport system for transporting a different type of yarn package than the type of yarn package which the transport system currently transports.